In a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, ICMC networked with Catholic Episcopal Conferences and Catholic-inspired organizations to promote intensified action and advocacy to serve and protect uprooted people.
ICMC works in a variety of ways to strengthen Catholic-inspired action and advocacy serving and protecting uprooted people and promoting migration that benefits all. In 2021, this included networking and joint projects with our national member organizations, collaboration with the Vatican and Catholic organizations, and communications initiatives to share information and experiences.
Partnerships with National Members
In India, we launched a new project with the migrant commission of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) to assist returned internal migrants who, because they were employed in low-paying, precarious work, have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. The initiative provides entrepreneurial training to migrant laborers forced to return to their homes in Delhi City and the bordering states of Uttar Pradesh and Hariyana in northern India after pandemic-related job loss.
Between August and November, we supported CCBI as they organized ten outreach sessions and one-day training programs for a total of 539 returning migrant workers and members of their communities. The sessions developed a greater awareness of health and hygiene measures in the pandemic era and equipped 146 migrants to start a small business to provide for themselves and their families. The newly minted entrepreneurs received seed funds to launch their livelihood initiative as well as follow-up support as they grow their businesses and continue to speak up for their rights.
In 2021, ICMC partnered with our national member organization in Burkina Faso to build up services for children and their families displaced in the North of the country by conflict between armed groups. In the midst of a volatile security situation, we supported the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees of Burkina Faso (CEPMR) to provide vital protection and educational and recreational activities for 100 children, and parenting and other classes for their caregivers at our Child Friendly Space in Bourzanga. Scholarships granted through the joint project have enabled 33 forcibly displaced children to continue their schooling.
Displaced children at the ICMC-CEPMR Child Friendly Space in Burkina Faso.
When the children return home, they are happy to show their parents what they have learned that day. The parents tell us that their children are more stimulated and cheerful when they attend sessions at the center.
Fr. Rodrigue Fidèle Sanon, speaking of the Child Friendly Space run jointly by ICMC and the Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees of Burkina Faso
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displaced and local children and their families found a safe space through a partnership with ICMC’s national member in Burkina Faso
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returned migrants were equipped to support themselves and their families thanks to a partnership with ICMC’s national member in India
Catholic-Inspired Global Responses
For the World Day of Migrants and Refugees (WDMR) on 26 September, ICMC promoted the Pope’s call to remember and pray for those displaced by violence and persecution. Via our website, Facebook, and Twitter channels, we urged Catholics throughout the globe to take up the day’s 2021 theme and move “Towards an Ever-Wider ‘We’” by extending hospitality to, building bridges with, and advocating on behalf of uprooted people.
In the joint statement, we advocated against the continued militarization of borders that prevents people from accessing protection. We called for stronger cultures of encounter with uprooted people at the center of community life. In the midst of the initial global COVID-19 recovery, we pledged together to continue working towards more resilient communities—communities that are rooted in solidarity and welcome the full participation of people on the move and other marginalized groups.
During Lent, ICMC, together with other Catholic-inspired organizations, highlighted the vulnerability of migrant workers at sea, essential workers whose safety and well-being have been put at further risk by the pandemic. As a member of the Coalition of Catholic Organizations Against Human Trafficking (CCOAHT), ICMC and some 30 other Catholic agencies urged those in the Church to raise awareness of the growing yet invisible humanitarian crisis affecting seafarers and to take action to reduce the threat of exploitation and health issues heightened by COVID-19.
I believe that this nomination is a sign of the importance accorded by the Holy Father to the mission and mandate of the International Catholic Migration Commission.
In May, the ICMC Europe Director brought an experience-based advocacy perspective to discussions on integration at the migration working group of Bishops’ Conferences in the EU.
Communication to Connect and Inform
ICMC’s official communication channels played an important role yet again in 2021 to facilitate the exchange of information, experiences, and best practices within both Church-related and secular arenas, and to amplify Catholic-inspired action to serve and protect uprooted people.
We published nearly 100 articles and feature stories on the ICMC website and maintained an active presence on social media channels, reaching people over 215,000 times throughout the year through Facebook and Twitter. In May and June, we launched a series of animated videos to explain some of ICMC’s main areas of work and to provide concrete examples of support for people on the move offered by ICMC and our partners.
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users visited the ICMC website, which published 99 articles and web items on the work of the organization and its members and partners
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users were reached through ICMC Facebook and Twitter channels
In 2021, ICMC increased outreach to our national member organizations with the aim of highlighting their support for uprooted people and advocacy for equitable and just migration-related policy. We published nearly 40 web items in the Our Members in the News section of the ICMC website, which guided readers to reporting on the activities of the Vatican and national Bishops’ Conferences in 18 countries, as well as in two broader regions, the European Union and Latin America. This focused attention helped to deepen connections with our members and raise the profile of their care for people on the move.
The Holy Father is asking for ‘fraternal openness that allows us to acknowledge, appreciate and love each person’ … This has clear implications for how we treat asylum-seekers, refugees, the internally displaced, and vulnerable migrants.
In April, the ICMC Secretary General participated in a roundtable co-organized by the Vatican’s COVID-19 Commission on addressing inequalities in a post-pandemic world.
#Refugees
At the invitation of the Vatican’s Migrants and Refugees Section, ICMC took part in high-level discussions on key refugee emergencies including the Balkan and Sahel regions.
Under the leadership of ICMC national member Caritas Bolivia, in 2021 the Church in Bolivia responded to increasing migration trends in the country by launching a national chapter of Red Clamor (Outcry Network).
The representatives of the member organizations of the Bolivian chapter of Red Clamor at its founding ceremony.
Founded in 2017, the Red Clamor network brings together Catholic-inspired organizations serving migrants, displaced people, refugees, and victims of human trafficking in more than 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. It includes several other ICMC national members and is supported by the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM).
Caritas Bolivia convened a preparatory meeting in September with seventeen groups serving uprooted people in the country. The participating organizations identified areas of joint action for the emergent Bolivia section of Red Clamor, including sharing information, coordinating services, and identifying common challenges.
At the meeting, Bishop René Leigue, the Episcopal delegate to Caritas Bolivia’s Office for Pastoral Care to People on the Move, who was later appointed Archbishop of Santa Crux de la Sierra, highlighted the key role of networks such as Red Clamor in enabling Catholic-inspired organizations to better serve such persons and amplify advocacy for their human rights.
In early December, the Bolivia chapter of Red Clamor officially came into being with the signing of a foundation charter at the offices of Caritas Bolivia in La Paz. The seventeen founding members tasked Caritas Bolivia with giving leadership to the new section of Red Clamor in its first two years.
The section aims to further equity and cultural diversity, strengthen respect for human rights, encourage active engagement in advocacy and support the Church to respond to Pope Francis’s call to welcome, protect, promote and integrate people on the move in Bolivia.
Already at its founding, the Bolivia section of Red Clamor found resonance among the people its members seek to serve and protect. “This action shows us a light of integration and hope. … It gives us strength to continue, especially for our children,” said a member of a migrant family who participated in the founding ceremony.
Caritas Bolivia’s shepherding of the Red Clamor chapter in the country complements existing action it is taking to give hope to and strengthen uprooted people. For example, in conjunction with the World Day against Trafficking in Persons in 2021, the ICMC national member, together with the Bolivian Episcopal Conference, held a number of workshops for students to raise awareness of the risks of trafficking, ways to prevent it, and places to get support.
